The present invention relates to receiving and displaying advertisements in an Electronic Program Guide (EPG). More specifically, this invention is directed to a system and method for utilizing data stored in an EPG database for modifying advertisement information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,931, issued on Jan. 23, 2001, the contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference, discloses an electronic program guide (EPG) with panel ad windows and channel ad tiles for displaying advertisement information. Typically, the advertisement information relates to future-scheduled television programs. For example, NBC might present a panel or tile advertisement of its show “Friends,” as being shown every Thursday night on the local NBC channel.
Certain information in the advertisement, however, may vary each time the advertisement is transmitted, or differ based on the location of the receiving television system. For instance, “Friends” might be shown at 8:00 pm in California, but at 7:00 pm in Chicago. Thus, an advertisement displayed on a television system in California might read: “Watch Friends every Thursday night at 8:00 pm,” while the advertisement in Chicago might state the same information (text and/or graphics), except that the airing time of the show will be different. Thus, for each of the different time zones, a service provider must create and transmit a different advertisement with the appropriate time information.
In addition to the above, the program description of an episode of a series of programs might differ on a daily, weekly, or bi-weekly basis. In such an instance, the service provider must transmit a new advertisement with updated program description information each time there is a change in the program description. Also, portions of information related to other ads, such as promoting a product or service may vary according to time zone, geographical regions, user preferences, and the like. Therefor, in the case of product/service advertisements, the service provider must also transmit a new advertisement with updated information each time there is a change in the price, telephone number, web site address, dates of promotions, and the like.
When advertisement information is transmitted via vertical blanking interval (VBI) signals which is a limited commodity, it is desirable to minimize the amount of advertisement information transmitted. With less transmitted information, the television systems that receive the information will also expend less memory in storing the information.